Hindustan Times
Kung fu to Kajra re
The curvy girls in ghagra cholis were swaying their hips on stage to Aishwarya Rai’s moves in the 2005 Bollywood hit kajra re that continues to crash into Indian weddings.
But this was a stodgy old Beijing theatre where elite Chinese usually amble past signs saying ‘please keep quiet’ and ‘please dress decently’ to watch classical Peking Opera.
In India, we would have been whistling and being noisily merry at such a show. But in the please-keep-quiet Polytheatre, the oomph of kajra re had the Chinese spellbound, speechless, silent and stunned. I looked around and saw Chinese men sitting stiffly straight on the edge of their seats, gaping with eyes wide open. They did not blink. No, not even like the Chinese soldiers who practise military blinks only at 40-second intervals.
Popcorn is irritatingly not allowed inside the Polytheatre even if it’s a Bollywood spectacle on public show for the first time since, I don’t know, the 1950s? The Chinese have access to Bollywood cinema that makes it to national television only if the communist censors deem the movies appropriate. The officials who make the decision have a fascination for glass palaces, warriors and courtesans. So the Chinese equate Bollywood with epics like Devdas and Asoka. In the good old days, Chinese families would gather in front of the television for the annual New Year gala and watch Chinese girls dance to songs from Umrao Jaan and the black-and-white Parasmani.
That Sunday night, they were not prepared for the seduction of kajra re. They loved it.
The Merchants of Bollywood is touring China. It’s an Australian musical about a traditional old choreographer and his strained bond with his talented but modern granddaughter in a changing era of Indian cinema. It won gushing reviews abroad but hasn’t shown in India.
No Bollywood movie has made it — for a very long time — into the annual 20 foreign films imported per year for public screening in theatres. Many Chinese viewers thought Slumdog Millionaire was made by Bollywood.
So I suffer the incurable Mumbai multiplex deprivation syndrome in Beijing, and could not miss the musical even if it meant handing over the steep 380 yuan (Rs 2,660) for balcony seats from where I couldn’t identify the faces of the actors in the Chinese brochures, nor count the six-pack abs of a certain dancer. The best seats went up to the equivalent of Rs 14,000.
The musical is song and dance minus a slick script and stage. The most ambitious props stop at kites and cutouts of jeeps. There are Chinese subtitles on an electronic board but none for the songs, so the audience never knows the context to the dances. Nach Baliye from Bunty Aur Babli was shown on the screen as nach gauue.
After letting my hopes soar about an exciting two-hour escape into Bollywood, I got bored during the rewind into the 1970s and 80s songs that dragged on and on. None of the dancers came close to dancing like Shammi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor or Jeetendra. The troupe kept bursting into Jhoom Barabar Jhoom at regular intervals.
But Polytheatre was eye-popping. Beijingers beamed broadly and clapped when the Indian actors suddenly burst into ni hao ma (how are you), zaijian (see you) and xiexie (thank you). The audience was so engrossed in the show that when the leading lady enacted a scene to accept a film award, they politely clapped. Soon after that, three normally polite expats from Mumbai, including a certain journalist, were spotted jumping over the seats near the exit in a great Bollywood escape.
(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Reshma Patil on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Filed under China · Tagged Aishwarya Rai, Australian musical, Beijing theatre, Bollywood, China, Chinese, choreographer, ghagra cholis, Indian cinema, Merchants of Bollywood, Parasmani, Peking Opera, Polytheatre, Slumdog Millionaire, Umrao Jaan
Very encouraging and interesting.
Your article on Gandhigiri was very heartening…we forgot him, others found him. Long live Gandhi and his Ahimsa
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Kajra Re as an Opera. Mind boggling. Aditya Chopra and Shaad Ali must be wondering. Sanjay Leela Bhansali can try a remake !
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This is riotous, so when we claim to have crossed boundaries and are as international as it can get, we really know the joke’s on us.
But seriously, its important that Indians put themselves and their craft in perspective. Everything else is just nirvana in a bottle.
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Reshma Reply:
October 6th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Well said, namrata. Btw, is Julia Roberts still eating, praying and loving in that ashram?
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Its supposed to be a nice musical although wasted on the Chinese who are busy trying to learn Ballroom Dancing and ape the what they think are the Western idioms for living. In the process …..there is room for some laughter and a musical.
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